The UAE has emerged as the region’s undisputed tech leadership hub, topping Forbes Middle East’s inaugural Top Tech Leaders 2026 ranking, which highlights the executives shaping the Middle East and North Africa’s digital transformation.

Unveiled this week, the ranking spans three categories—Top Tech Leaders in Government, Top Tech Leaders of Global Companies, and Top Tech CEOs—and focuses exclusively on leaders based in the MENA region. The selection was based on criteria including leadership impact, experience, company scale, achievements, technological initiatives, and investments.

The list features 50 entries representing 53 leaders across eight countries, with the UAE accounting for 25 leaders, or 47% of the total, underscoring its dominance as a regional technology powerhouse. Saudi Arabia ranked second with 15 leaders, representing more than 28% of the cohort. Egypt followed with four entries, Kuwait with three, Oman and Bahrain with two each, while Morocco and Qatar were represented by one leader each.

Dr  Mohamed Al Kuwaiti, Head of Cybersecurity for the UAE Government, topped the ranking in the Middle East’s Top Tech Leaders in Government list, which highlights senior public-sector leaders running national entities that regulate, secure, and enable technology ecosystems. Abdullah bin Sharaf Alghamdi, President of Saudi Data & AI Authority (SDAIA), and Faisal Al Bannai, Secretary-General of the UAE’s Advanced Technology Research Council (ATRC), secured the second and third spots, respectively. To curate this list, the entity’s mandate and responsibilities, the scale and breadth of work and influence, and the leader’s remit were considered.  

Ronaldo Mouchawar, Vice President—Middle East, Africa, & Türkiye at Amazon, ranked first in the Middle East’s Top Tech Leaders of Global Companies list, that spotlights the regional leaders at global technology firms who are pushing cloud, platforms, enterprise software, and AI across Middle Eastern markets. Anthony Nakache, Managing Director—MENA at Google, and Abdul Rahman Al Thehaiban, Managing Director—MENA & Türkiye at Google Cloud, were both ranked second, while Fares Akkad, Managing Director—Middle East & Africa at Meta, secured the third spot.  For this list, achievements over the past year, scope of role, business scale, and industry experience were examined, with the prerequisite that the company needs to be featured on the Forbes 2025 Global 2000 list. 

Peng Xiao, Group CEO at G42, ranked first in the Middle East’s Top Tech CEOs list that recognises founders and executives leading some of the region’s most influential technology companies. Hatem Dowidar, Group CEO at e&, and Olayan Alwetaid, Group CEO at stc Group, secured the second and third spots, respectively. To compose this list, we considered only CEOs of MENA headquartered companies, assessing their regional impact, experience in role, company scale, past year performance, technological initiatives, and announced investments or deals. – TradeArabia News Service